Vending-machine.



- w.1. TINIERA.

VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATIQN FILED APR. 16. I915.

Patented Feb. 15, 1916.

W. J. TINTERA.

VENDING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APR. i6. I915.

2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

WI IILLIAM J. 'IINTERA, OF STAPLETON, NEW'TYORK.

VENDING-MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb. 1-5, 1916.

' Application filed April 16, 1915. Serial No. 21,819.

To all whom it may concern this casing conforms substantially to that Be it known that I, WILLIAM J. TINTERA, of the casingof the ordinary vending maa citizen of the United States, residing at Stapleton, in the county of Richmond and State of ,New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Vending-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The general object of the invention is to simplify the construction and cheapen the cost of manufacture of vending machines. And to this end the invention consists in certain combinations and arrangements of parts hereinafter more fully described and pointed out in the appended claims.

Other objectswill appear and be better understood from that embodiment of my invention of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming part hereof, in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of the device partly in section and with the door removed. Fig. 2 is a horizontal cross section on the line 22 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. '2 on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section with the door omitted. Fig. 5 is a detail end elevation of a portion of the check controlled apparatus showing a fragment of the casing in section. Fig. 6 is a detail perspective of a portion of the feed apparatus. Fig. 7 is a detail perspective of another portion of the feed apparatus showing the coin holder and the pusher. Fig. 8 is a detail perspective of the check controlled operating handle. -Fig. 9 is a detail perspective of the carrier; and Figs. 10 and .11 are detail perspectives of the carrier look.

I have elected to show the invention about to be described, as adapted for vending relatively small packages of confectionery, and further adapted for attachment to the rear face of the back of a theater chair. In so adapting the invention care has been taken, on account of the relatively light weight character of the goods to be vended and the freedom had from exposure, to construct the several parts not only relatively light in weight but by a process which will keep the cost to manufacture the said several parts down to a minimum. Thus the casing-a is. by preference stamped from a single sheet of metal, and in point of size hines now found associated with theater chairs. Suitable holes 5 are formed in the back 6 of the casing for receiving screws or their equivalents, for attaching the casing in an upright position to the back of a theater chair. The door 7 of the casing is stamped from a single piece of sheet metal and is hinged at one side to a side wall 8 of the casing, and a marginal flange 9 carried bythe door overlaps the edges of the opposite side wall 10 and the end walls 11 of the casing when the door is closed. When the door. is in closed position it may be looked through the medium of a suitable key-actuatedlock'll, shown in Fig. 1 as connected with the side wall 10 and arranged so that a locking bolt (not shown) will pass through a recess made to receive it in the marginal flange of the door. A simple structure for effecting the hinge connection between the door and the side wall .8 is shown in Figs. 2 and 3, where 12 indi-- cates one of a pluralityof' hooks formed with the inner edge ofdoor 7 and arranged so as to extend through openings in side is adjustably connected to the casinga so.

that it may be readily moved out of the way when loading the machine with merchandise and in readjusting the carrier. A I

convenient form of adjustable connection between the tubular casing 15 and casing a, is shown in the drawings in the form of a pair of pivots 1616 which pass through up-struck lugs 17- 17 in the back 6 of casing a and through the lower end portions of the side walls of tubular casing 15. Thus when the machine is in use and. the door closed, tubular casing 15 may be adjusted into the positions shown in Figs. 1 to 3 inclusive, or it may be moved to the position shown in Fig. 4 when the door is open and in the act of loading the machine and ad'usting the carrier.

It will be noted by referring to Figs. 1 and 3 that the coin cup 18' is attached to one side wall of tubular casing 15 andintermediate of the ends thereof, so that when tubular casing 15 is swung outwardly to the position shown in Fig. 4 the coins may be readily taken from the cup 18. It will be-noted that the upper end oftubular casin 15 terminates at a point considerably be ow the upper end wall 18 of casing a when the parts are positioned as shown in Fig. 1. In fact, the distance between the end wall 18 and upper end of tubular casing 15 is a trifle greater than twice the thickness of anyof the ieces 13. By so proportioning the lengt of tubular casing 15 to the corresponding dimension of casing a sufiicient room is provided to permit the upward movement of the stack of merchandise for a distance equal to the thickness of one of the pieces 13 during the operation of vending the uppermost piece of the stack of merchandise which is at all times positioned a trifle above the upper edge of tubular casing 15. In disposing tubular casing 15 in casing acare is exercised to provide an appreciable amount of space between side wall 10 of casing a and the adjacent side wall of casing 15. This space constitutes a chamber 19 through which the uppermost piece of merchandise falls after having been pushed olf the stack, the said chamber 19 having at its lower end a shelf or ledge which extends inwardly from an opening 20 through which access is had withthe fingers for the purpose of removing the vended piece of merchanise from the casing.

During the operation of vending a longiatudinally movable'rack 21 having teeth 22, inclined on one side, is moved upwardly and in so movin interlocks with a dog 23, the said dog be1ng actuated by a spring 23' as shown in Fig. 3. The amount of upward movement of the rack corresponds to the thickness of any of the pieces 13 so that when the parts are positioned, for instance, as shown in Fi 1, with the uppermost piece of the stack su stantially in alinement with the uppermost edge of tubular casing 15, a movement on partv of rack 21 will advance or elevate the succeeding piece of merchandise to the position previously occupied 'by' the said uppermost piece. Now by having the length of each of the teeth 22 correspond to the thickness of any of the pieces 13 and arranging rack 21 so as to reciprocate, then dog 23 will be engaged by a difierent tooth each time the carrier is elevated a step upwardly, provided, however, that the said carrier be prevented from moving downwardly with the return movement of the rack. A simple means for preventing such downward movement of the carrier, is shown in Figs. 1, 3, 4, 10 and 11. There it will be observed that a locking dog 24 is arranged so as to cooperate with a, stationary toothed surface 25. The said toothed surface 25 of the upward movement of the carrier andthereby prevents return or downward movement of the carrier along with rack 21. The toothed surface 25 is herein shown as comprising a pair of stationary racks arranged in spaced relation, and on opposite sides of rack 22, and locking dog 24 is shown as being provided with a recess for dog 23 and arranged so as to engage the pair of racks making up toothed surface 25. The said dog 24 is, as shown in Fig. 3, mounted in an opening 26 in carrier 14 and is pressed outwardly by a spring 27 which surrounds the stem 28' of dog 23 that projects through an opening 29 in looking dog 24. The outer end of said stem being provided with a knob 30 which forms a convenient hand-hold for retracting the several dogs from engagement with the teeth with which they interlock, in the operation of lowering the carrier froma position at the upper end of the toothed surface 25 and the corresponding end of rack 21 to the lower end of said tooihed surface and the lower end of said rac Rack 21 is operated by an arm 31 which is connected in any suitable way to the said rack, as by a laterally extending pin 32 which extends through a slot 33 in a lateral extension 34 of said arm. the said slot being oblique to the vertical side of the rackso as to obtain a vertical reciprocating movement of the rack when the arm reciprocates horizontally. The arm 31 depends from a slide 35 which bears on guide lugs 36 up-struck from the back 5 of casing a and from the top 18 thereof, said guides being so positioned as to permit the slide to move between them and the adjacent surface of upper end 18. The pusher 37 is pivotally connected to the lower face of slide 35 and is constructed so as to alin'e and substantially contact with one end of the uppermost piece of merchandise in the stack. As shown in Figs. 1 and 7, the pusher 37 inclines downwardly from slide 35 but its lower end is prevented from moving into the-vertical by reason of a rule-j oint connection or its equivalent between the said pusher and the slide. The amount of sliding movement afforded for the slide 35 will approximate the length of one of the pieces 13 so that when the slide is moved to the left in Fig. 1, the pusher 37 will push the uppermost piece to the left and continue such pushing movement until gravity operates to cause the said uppermost piece to fall through chamber 19. Now during the action of pushing the uppermost piece it will be observed that the stack moves upwardly but this movement is not resisted by the pusher by reason of its pivotal connection with slide 35.

The movement of slide 35 is controlled by operating handle 38 which in turn is interlocked with the slide through the medium of a check or coin. As will be noted by referring to Figs. 1-5 and 7 a coin slot 39 is formed in the upper end 18 of easing a and when slide 35 is in its normal position a recess 40 therein coincides with slot 39. When the slots so coincide a coin of a predetermined size may be introduced thereinto, whereupon the said coin which is shown in Fig. 5 and indicated by 41, will fall ontov a relatively narrow ledge 42 on back wall 5 of casing a. This ledge 42 00- operates with an extension 43 to hold the coin suspended as shown in Fig. 5. Now

when the up-turned end of operating rod 38, which is at the upper left hand corner of casing a in Fig. 1, is pulled outwardly, a finger 44 at the inner end of rod 38 moves into contact with the central portion of coin '41 and as the outward movementofrod 38 is continued the finger, by keeping in contact with coin 41, operates to move the slide 35'. This movement on the part of the slide will continue until the coin clears the left hand end of ledge 42 in Fig. 1 and by that time the pusher 37 will have dislodged the uppermost piece 13 and the rack 21 will have moved upwardly and the pin 32 will have moved to the inner end of slot 33. The coin upon clearing the inner end of ledge 42 will drop into coin cup 18'. The outward movement of operating rod 35 tensions a spring 45 which connects the said rod with casing a so that upon releasing rod 38 spring 45 operates to restore the rod to its normal position. I

Referring now to Figs. 27 and 8 it will be observed that slide 35 is disposed between the narrow offset portion 46 of rod 38 and the back 6 of casing a. In fact, the slide and the offset portion 46 are disposed in a common plane, the operating rod being supported by certain of the lugs 36 upstruck from casing a. When rod 38 moves inwardly under the action of spring 45 the shoulder 47 of said rod being in contact with the left hand end of slide 35 in Fig. 2

operates to move the slide inwardly to its normal position. It will benoted that the extension 43 of coin slot 40 is a flat openended tubular structure so as to prevent lateral displacement of the coin under pressure by finger 44, and it will be further observed that finger 4-4 is formed with a downwardly ofi'set end portion of rod 38, whereby to have it in alinement with the of a size corresponding to the size of the coin required to efi'ect'the operation ofthe machine. Attention is directed to the fact that in the upper end of the row of teeth 22"of rack 21, a notch 48 is substituted for a tooth. The purpose of this construction is to prevent return movement of the rack when dog 23 enters notch 48, which entering will occur simultaneous with the vending of the last piece of merchandise in the stack. When the return movement. of rack 21 is prevented through the cooperation of dog 23 v and notch 48, slide 35 is held in the position on the left of Fig. 1 to which it was moved through the agency of the coin and finger When the said slide is so positioned and held the end part 49 thereof to the left of slot 40 in Fig. 7, will be disposed in alinement with the coin slot 39 in end wall 18 of casing a and by its presence prevent the act of introducing a coin into the machine.

For convenience in illustration, I have shown the rack teeth 22 as being formed with a laterally bent edge of rack 21 and toothed surface 25 arranged on either side of a slot in a plate 50 suitably attached to back 5 of casing a as by rivets 51. 'Preferably the said toothed surface 25 is formed integral with plate 50 and rack 21 extends it and the adjacent surface of the back 5 for i that purpose. Carrier 14 is suitably connected to the machine so as to prevent its displacement and to provide for its operation. In the present instance, I have shown a flange 52 formed with plate 50 and arranged in an undercut 53 in the inner face of carrier 14. By preference carrier 14 is formed with a depending portion 54, the function of which is to provide a generous bearing surface to prevent the carrier from tilting. Having described the invention what is claimed is 1. In a vending machine a casing adapted to serve as a guide for a stack of! articles,

a carrier mounted for movement along the casing, fixed teeth located adjacent the path mounted upon the carrier and engageable' with the last mentioned teeth, means for moving the rack plate and a pushing device connected with the last mentioned means and adapted to remove the uppermost article from the stack- 10 ing the slide and a pusher finger pivotally m'zmae connected with the slide and adapted to remove the uppermost article from the stack.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

WILLIAM J. TINTERA.

Witnesses:

JOHN O. DONEGAN, M. E. LAUGHLIN. 

